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Music to row.the Atlantic

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In a couple of weeks I’ll be heading off to La Gomera to prep our boat for our departure on 12th December as we row across the Atlantic to Antigua.
We’re in a race called the Worlds Toughest Row but as a bunch of oldies we’re just looking to have an adventure and help a local Cornish charity the Invictus Trust to raise money and offer help for adolescent mental health here in Cornwall.
It will take us about 45 days, unsupported, taking all provisions with us. So I’ve downloaded playlists, some podcasts, a couple of audio books and all of Blackadder to listen to.
But I’d really appreciate your help offering suggestions for whole albums to download off Spotify. Any genre, any period. Just one caveat – you must absolutely love it. It must be one that you go back to time and again. It will do something for you that other most albums, however good, don’t.
Some of your suggestions I’ll know and already have, but most I won’t. And I’d really love the opportunity to listen to pieces of music that are new to me, in the middle of the night perhaps, during a 2 hour rowing shift, hundreds of miles from absolutely anywhere.
Look very much to hearing from you.

https://invictusatlantic.com/

2

Comments

  1. The very best of luck with your endeavours – it certainly sounds like a real adventure. You could do a lot worse than peruse @dai‘s thread on here where folk have listed a selection of 25 top albums they really love – there’s enough there to get you well out to sea, and maybe half way to your destination at the least.

    Here it is: https://theafterword.co.uk/25-2/

    Never having tried to row anywhere of that distance (I attempted to cross Malham Tarn in a rowing boat once, and was beaten by the Yorkshire breezes) I can ony imagine what might drive your musical choices mid-crossing, but I’m sure those 25 strong sets of albums will offer up plenty of fine choices – maybe pick some of the albums you’ve never even heard of before?!

  4. I’m not going to recommend anything, but I’ll look forward to hearing more of your endeavours. I live in Shetland and have done some long rows, including to Norway, so all power to you. Oh, I do have a recommendation after all – plenty of vaseline on the arse!

  7. I take my hat off to you, Jim. And wish you the very best of luck

    In my day, if we wanted to raise money for charity we baked some buns and had a jumble sale. You and your pals are spending 45 days at sea rowing across the Atlantic. My gob is so smacked that I don’t know what to say.

    Thanks for telling us about this. I intend to follow your adventures with great interest.

    Here’s a tune you probably won’t want to hear….

  10. Hold fast Jim. A seriously impressive undertaking. Pob lwc.
    As for music I’m going to suggest something obvious Debussy’s La Mer. You can’t go wrong with the recording from the Hallé with Sir Mark Elder on the waving a stick around duties.

  12. Mishka ‘Above The Bones’. Very laid back, lite-reggae, Marley-type vibe. Title-wise, I should nominate his 2013 album The Ocean Is My Potion (on Mailboat Records). But Above The Bones is better. Still, Above The Bones works as a title too. Davy Jones Locker and all that.

  13. Wow – that’s wildly impressive Jim. My gob is smacked and my flabber is gasted.

    As far as the music is concerned I have no experience of rowing at all, but would have thought repetitive rhythms might be the thing. So maybe some Underworld (Dubnobasswithmyheadman would be my choice) or something motorik (Neu, Can , that type of thing). They never get tired as far as I’m concerned.

    All the very, very best with the row – a great cause too. I will donate on payday. Let us know how you get on.

  17. Absolutely love the understatement Jim – feels like a Fast Show sketch. ‘ and then a few friends and I decided to row across the Atlantic. Which was nice…..’

    You’ll know all my obvious choices, so a couple of 21st century records which have become absolute keepers for me –

    Indian Ocean by Frazey Ford
    I Long to See You by Charles Lloyd

    To be honest they’re records to lie back to rather than row vigorously across the Atlantic but they’re good.

    Of course there’s always Atlantic Crossing by Rodders…

  18. Blimey @jim. Wishing you the best in your terrific endeavour.

    I offer you not strictly an album, but a very long single song. Marillion’s “Ocean Cloud” is an 18 minute tribute to Don Allum, the first person to row the Atlantic both ways. It includes clips of the British oarsman talking about his experience.

  19. Good effort Jim, all the best to you, may your winds always be behind you. Or would they need to be in front of you if you’re rowing backwards? Anyway, whichever way is the right way, that’s what I want for you.

    My choice? Music I luuurrrrvvvvve?
    Either
    Songs from the Deep Forest by Duke Special
    or
    Stay Positive by The Hold Steady.

  20. That’s a massive undertaking Jim! Good luck! A long report back when you triumphantly return please?

    Album wide, lots of good stuff here but something different – “Elegant Gypsy” but Al Di Meola. I’ve lived it for 40 years and it never fails. Guitar playing at it’s finest.

    Good luck!

  21. I was thinking you might need something with a repetitive beat, so how about The Orb? The first album is about two hours long, the second album includes a 40-minute ‘single’.

    I haven’t felt the need to listen to The Orb for decades, but then I’ve never tried transatlantic rowing. Good luck!

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